Yet, until a surprising announcement from the Obama administration on Sunday, that’s rarely what the public has heard about Alaska’s highly politicized Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
We heard that it was full of oil. Or it wasn’t.
That it would create a bunch of jobs. Or it wouldn’t.
That it would solve the energy crisis.
Or, you know, maybe not.
A former U.S. rep actually said “there’s no wildlife” there.
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So much of the United States has been carved up by people — from the farmers’ plows on the Great Plains to the mountain-blasting miners in Appalachia — that it’s comforting to know this place is left.
Bears, caribou — and, yeah, mosquitoes.
But maybe I’m too swept up in this. I’m curious what you think of the President’s framing of the Arctic Refuge — and his request that Congress protect it more permanently. Do those arguments convince you, especially at a time when oil and gas prices are low and when the United States is already, without ANWR, the top oil and natural gas producer in the world?
Or do you agree with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who said called the move a “stunning attack on our sovereignty and our ability to develop a strong economy that allows us, our children and our grandchildren to thrive.”
Let me know in the comments or by writing me on Twitter. I’m @jdsutter.
